armed merchant cruisers. The first group of twenty AMCs were to fitted with Emergency Equipment in British ports with six more being converted overseas. The Emergency scale consisted of ancient 6-inch guns and mountings, a light director control, wooden magazines and shell-rooms and no divided storage for anti-aircraft ammunition. Only easily removed woodwork was to be removed such as furniture and bulkheads. The crew would be placed in the existing accommodation rather than broadside messes. Defensive shielding would be limited to protecting the bridge with sandbags and steel plates with more plates for the steering gear and machinery. It was hoped to have the ships operational in two and a half to three weeks. Complete Equipment was to follow, comprising full director systems, watertight magazines and shell rooms made of steel, broadside mess decks with hammocks, four paravanes per ship, the removal of more woodwork and thirteen 6-inch gun sets taken from C- and D-class cruisers once they were re-armed as anti-aircraft cruisers. Due to equipment shortages, the ships were fitted with six to nine 6-inch guns (some with 5.5-inch), two to four 3-inch or 4-inch anti-aircraft guns, several smaller guns and roll-off racks for a small number of depth charges. The guns and mountings were old, their ammunition had to be carried by hand and at 20° elevation reached their maximum range of only , the guns had director control but very little shielding. The armament of the C- and D-class cruisers had been intended for the AMCs but the decision to keep the cruisers in service precluded this. Royal Navy captains or commanders were put in command of the vessels, mostly dug-outs from retirement, accompanied by Navy first lieutenants, navigation and gunnery officers, some of whom were also Navy personnel and the rest of the officers were drawn from the RNR, some being the civilian officers of the ships, RNVR and T.124 agreement (voluntary enlistment and subject to RN discipline whilst retaining civilian rates of pay and conditions). A retired officer was embarked to help find neutral and belligerents' trawlers, often known to the trawler skippers and on good terms, which helped when bartering for part of the trawlers' catch. Ratings were drawn from the RN, RFR, RNR, RNVR, "hostilities only" and former Merchant Navy ratings on special agreements. The accommodations of AMCs were greatly superior to those on RN ships, even when fittings were removed to reduce